Omniture and Adobe - A second take
Phil provided some very useful background on the deal and initial thoughts earlier this morning. Here are a few more comments.
I'm still scratching my head. Adobe says this will connect designers to metrics, but look at Omniture's customer base: they are only the largest enterprises with the deepest pockets, whereas Adobe sells most of its tools cheaply and in quantity. If the plan is to take Omniture down-market, I'm not a believer.
What Adobe really wanted, I think, is a proven SaaS platform on which to build other hosted services. If so, that's good for the market, but probably bad for existing Omniture customers.
SaaS-based Web CMS vendors are watching this deal closely. Their VC-backers pushing for an exit probably choked when they saw a potential suitor (Omniture) get snapped up themselves. On the other hand, a fellow SaaS vendor getting purchased by a "traditional" software player probably bodes well for Clickability and CrownPeak as they look for potential buyers.
We'll keep talking to customers, and will let our subscribers know what we find out.